CHIRP's top ten

http://chirpradio.org/blog/chirp-radios-top-10-albums-of-2016

Best of 2016

Here is the list of my favorite music in 2016. In no particular order.
http://chirpradio.org/blog/chirp-radio-best-of-2016-al-gabor

David Bowie   BlackStar

A brilliant coda to an amazing career. Given Bowie’s shape-shifting career, it’s fitting that his last album is totally different than anything he recorded before and yet unmistakably Bowie.

Blood Orange   Freetown Sound

After the election, I rediscovered this album and played it incessantly. All of the strong female voices—sometimes lead, sometimes half a duet, sometimes choir; sometimes earthy, sometimes ethereal—seemed the best balm for the sorry state of things.   

Explosions in the Sky  The Wilderness

Their best since The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. The drive, the sense of grandeur and space are still here, but the aural textures are richer and more nuanced.

Chairlift   Moth

Desperate times need perfect pop records.  Chairlift delivers big time.

Angel Olsen  My Woman

My Woman is a huge step forward in songcraft and production. Angel Olsen’s vocals

have never been stronger or more evocative. Highlight: the slow- burning ‘Sister’ with its refrain “All my life I thought I’d change” repeated as the guitar lines grows more frantic.

Mitski  Puberty 2

Japanese-born Mitski (Miyawaki) uses a cool, almost distant, vocal style--a stark contrast to all the agitation and anxiety in the lyrics--showing how a person’s mid-twenties can seem like a reprise of the awkwardness and the sexual/personal confusion occurring with puberty. Standout: “Your Best American Girl” a slow-building orchestral pop that posits love as a type of assimilation.

Car Seat Headrest  Teens of Denial

At times, Teens sounds like combination of Television and Pavement--all in all, not bad choices of bands to emulate. But lead man Will Toledo plays and writes his way out from under these influences to a sound that is all his own, creating an album with urgency, wry humor, shrewd observations, unpredictable transitions and great crunchy rock moments.

Mavis Staple   Livin’ on a High Note

After two acclaimed albums produced by Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples tapped M. Ward as producer and asked a slew of songwriters to contribute “joyful” songs for Livin’ on a High Note. The songs gathered here—written by Neko Case, Nick Cave, Valerie June Justin Vernon and other elite songwriters—are a restrained kind of joyful: more a reflective appreciation of the love of family and friends than any lighthearted larks. Mavis’s voice retains the warmth, moral fervor and emotive power of her youth.

Anderson .Paak    Malibu

Effortlessly moving from hip hop to Stax-like soul to R&B to dance grooves, Anderson Paak put out one of the year’s most multifaceted albums. A joy from start to finish.

Frank Ocean   Blonde

Following the release of 2012’s Channel Orange, Frank Ocean had a yearlong bout of writer’s block. He broke through only after he decided he needed to revisit some of the events of his youth.  The biographical elements are present in Blonde but more as hints and fragments than fleshed out narratives. He uses a myriad of voice distortions to indicate points of view from different phases in his life. Still, Ocean remains elusive but the music is mesmerizing.

Honorable Mentions:

Eleanor Friedberger, New View

The Range, Potential

Savages, Adore Life

Lydia Loveless, Real

Bombino, Azel

Best of 2015

The music I listened to the most in 2015, in no particular order. This list appeared in the CHIRP Best of 2015 blog: http://chirpradio.org/blog/chirp-radio-best-of-2015-al-gabor

Torres/Sprinter

Rob Ellis, producer of PJ Harvey, gives the songs on Sprinter the sonic punch to match the angst of Mackenzie Scott's lyrics.  Scott, who grew up in a strict Baptist family, re-examines the source of her spirituality and her growing estrangement from a community that once provided comfort. 

Yo La Tengo/Stuff Like that There

Yo La Tengo’s 1990 release, Fakebook, remains one of my favorite albums. My daughters grew up singing lyrics from “Yellow Sarong” (The man in the moon taps at the window/How will we know your silhouette?/How will we reach you?)-- a special family lullaby.  Stuff Like that There follows the same game plan: loving covers of songs that deserve a wider audience, alternate takes of some of their own material and a few new songs.  A low-key masterwork. 

Deerhunter/Fading Frontier

Song for song, one of Deerhunter’s best efforts, with a brighter, airier sound palette than previous releases. 

Jamie XX/In Colour

A lot of electronic/ambient music runs out of ideas long before the song is over. All of the songs on In Colour clock in at less than five minutes and all have a musical inventiveness that makes you eager to hear more. Jamie XX creates a soundtrack for dreams from which you don’t want to wake.  

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment/Surf

Surf is the musical antidote to all of the bad news that came out of Chicago this year. Donnie Trumpet (Nico Segal) and a slew of musical guests that include Chance the Rapper, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, and Jamila Woods whip up an exhilarating blend of hip hop, gospel, New Orleans jazz and other genres.  The messages are strong and positive, celebrating self-reliance, family and community.  

Kendrick Lamar/To Pimp a Butterfly

Pimp is ambitious but preachy, sprawling but containing concise lines that pierce the heart, exhilarating but maddening in turns. All said, when the smoke clears, it remains the most essential record released in 2015. 

Shamir/Ratchet

After a pummeling work week, my wife and I dragged ourselves to see Shamir at Lincoln Hall. His electric performance completely revitalized us. Since then Ratchet became our go-to album when we needed a sonic boost. 

Low/Ones and Sixes

“All you innocents, make a run for it,” sings Low’s Mimi Parker. These are lullabies of dread and angst, spare in their arrangements but always with just the right strummed chord, percussive element, two-note progression, or other musical element to bring the song home. 

Low Cut Connie/Hi Honey

Sometimes you want foie gras; sometimes a double cheeseburger and fries is just the way to go.  Hook-filled pub rock with attitude to spare.

Chastity Belt/Time to Go Home

Chastity Belt’s 2013 No Regerts was a raunchy, rollicking lark. Time to Go Home has a party’s-over vibe. Melancholy and nuance replace the hijinks and the musicianship has picked up a step. The guitar work at the close of “Joke” has only one flaw. It ends.

2014 Favorites

# 1 St Vincent

St Vincent

It should not have taken St. Vincent’s electrifying performance at Pitchfork to make me take a closer listen to this album, but it did. At Pitchfork, she subverted and parodied rock star poses and then shredded and rocked as hard as any one of those stars. This album takes all the strengths in evidence in St Vincent’s earlier albums--lyrical wit, innovative guitar sounds and gorgeous vocals--and balances them perfectly.

# 2 Lydia Loveless

Somewhere Else

The madness of love (like the trope of love as an addiction) is a cliche.  But when someone takes that cliche, grabs it by the throat and sings and plays it the hell out of it, well, suddenly it seems like a revelation. Somewhere Else is a revelation--a shot of bourbon in a world of rosemary-infused fizzy cocktails.

# 3 Sharon Van Etten

Are We There

Her best yet--the same thing I’ve said about her last two albums. Although Van Etten hasn’t broadened the breadth of her subject matter, her songs continue to grow in nuance and power.

# 4 Protomartyr

Under the Color of Official Right

Angular, caustic, and droll postpunk from the Motor City that would make Iggy proud.  

# 5 Spoon

They Want My Soul

#6 Jenny Lewis

The Voyager

The 70s LA rock production throws you at first. But it’s just sugar-coating lyrics sharp and cutting as glass shards.  

#7 Ex Hex

Rips

Mary Timony (Helium, Wild Flag) brings back the 3-minute rock song--actually gives us a dozen terrific ones.

# 8 The New Pornographers

Brill Bruisers

A. C. Newman is happy; songs are happy; New Pornographers fans are happy.

#9 War on Drugs

Lost in the Dream

Secretly Canadian

I’ve always been a sucker for Dylanesque vocals and when you add stellar guitar atmospherics and solid songcraft to the mix, the results are transfixing.

# 10 The Men

Tomorrow’s Hits

Sacred Bones

Shambolic rockers reminiscent of the Replacements or pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz.


Many happy listens

Beck

Morning Phase

Beck revisits the sound of 2002’s Sea Change, working with many of the same musicians and delivering many of same sonic delights.

Best Concerts of 2013

In chronological order

Bombino at Martyr's,  June 9th

Woods at Pitchfork, July 19th

Bjork at Pitchfork, July 19th

Low at Pitchfork, July 20th
http://pitchfork.com/news/52261-listen-low-cover-rihannas-stay/

Yo la Tengo at Pitchfork, July 21st

Killer Mike at Pitchfork, July 21st

Neko Case at the Hideout Block Party, September 6th

Superchunk at the Hideout Block Party, September 7th

The Replacements at RiotFest, September 15th

Best Music of 2013

 

The 13 Best Albums of 2013

(in no particular order)

 

Chastity Belt--No Regerts (Help Yourself Records)

 

Wickedly funny, raunchy songs from an all-female quartet from Walla Walla, Washington. Boasting amazing vocals and chiming, driving guitars, No Regerts is one of those albums you need to listen to at least once a day for months on end.  

Bombino--Nomad (Nonesuch)

Desert rock filtered through American trance blues with incendiary guitar work from Tuareg artist Bombino from Agadez, Niger.  

Savages—Silence Yourself (Matador Records)

A ferocious debut from London-based quartet.  It’s great to see a buzz band that lives up to its buzz—especially when the overall message of said buzz band is telling you to tune out all the hype, noise and distractions. 

Arcade Fire—Reflektor (Merge)

 

Arcade Fire’s most enigmatic album. During the first couple of listens, I found myself admiring its ambition, but hating its pretension; finding the songs derivative, then inventive; diffuse but too solipsistic. But every listen gave me more to admire. Reflektor is one of those albums that rewards patience and getting past preconceptions.

The National--Trouble Will Find Me (4AD Records)

 

Personally, I think Matt Berninger goes looking for trouble ‘cause it’s so much fun to sing about.  No new ground broken here, but the National make angst and self-doubt so musically inviting.

 

Low--The Invisible Way (Sub Pop)

 

Gorgeous songs of faith, longing and reconciliation, ably produced by Jeff Tweedy.

 

Superchunk--I Hate Music (Merge Records)

 

Somehow Superchunk manages to write a summer road song (“Me & You & Jackie Mittoo”) that also ponders time, loss and mortality.  Maybe music “can’t bring anyone back to this earth” but it’s the best we got.  And on this album, it’s fine compensation.

Mavis Staples—One True Vine (ANTI-Records)

The second album of Mavis Staples produced by Jeff Tweedy is a low-key gem. Her version of Low’s “Holy Ghost” is a spine tingler.

Neko Case--The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You (ANTI- Records)

 

After falling into a depression after a number of deaths in her family, Neko Case creates one of her most personal and arresting albums.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds--Push The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd)

 

Nick Cave eases up on the pedal-to-the-metal assault of the two Grinderman albums and Dig, Lazarus, Dig, but these are no lullabies.  The musical restraint creates its own tension, and the lyrics, with mermaids hung by their hair from the streetlights and a fetus on a leash, add to the unease. 

 

My Bloody Valentine—MBV (self-released)

22 years after Loveless, My Bloody Valentine releases an album that builds on that classic and expands the sound.

 

Rhye—Woman (Republic Records)

Is your Al Green CD in the car? Does your Barry White album skip?  No problem, Rhye's Woman will set the mood.

 

Valerie June--Pushin' Against a Stone (Sunday Best) 

 

With a voice that sounds like it's coming from a John Lomax field recording instead of a contemporary album, Valerie June transports the listener. 

Best Music of 2012

Best of 2012

1) Frank Ocean – Channel Orange (Def Jam

All the buzz about the brilliant debut album of this New Orleans R&B singer is justified. I listened to this album as much as any album this year and had a new favorite song from it every week. 



2) Cloud Nothings--Attack on Memory

Angsty, high-energy punk pop from Cleveland’s Dylan Baldi, who has graduated from basement studio productions to fronting a band. When my days at work became beastly, screaming along to this album on the drive home was a catharsis. “Stay Useless” is my song of the year.

3) Sharon Van Etten -- Tramp  (Jagjaguwar)

Recorded with the help of The National’s Aaron Dessner, Van Etten broadens her musical palette and releases her most consistently compelling album to date.

4) The Coup -- Sorry to Bother You (Epitaph)

Boots Riley and company mix up a potent blend of hip hop, 70s funk, soul, garage rock and wickedly funny agitprop. The revolution may not be televised, but there will be dancing. The Coup also put on one of the best live shows of 2012.

5) Best Coast--The Only Place (Mexican Summer)


If you stop listening to the lyrics after the sunny title song you could easily mistake this for a breezy summer fluff album of sixties retro tunes. But the success of her first album seems to have unsettled LA native Bethany Cosentino. These are dark songs from a sunny clime, with lyrics about trying to stifle self doubt with drinking and shopping.  Cosentino continues to develop her her songcraft, and her singing is stronger than ever.


6) Japandroids -- Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)

The title is its own review. This duo from Vancouver, British Columbia makes some happy noise.  

7) dB’s--Falling Off the Sky (Bar None)


After a gap of thirty years, all four original members of the dB’s reunite and put out an album as punchy and toothsome as their best stuff from the eighties. They floored me when I saw one of their shows at the Hideout in November.

8) Santigold – Master of My Make Believe (Atlantic)


The less she tries to sound like MIA, the better she is.

9) Walkmen--Heaven (Fat Possum)

The Walkmen grow up, mellow out, become dads and still make some terrific music.

10) Lee Fields -- Faithful Man (Truth & Soul)


Old school soul from a veteran with 40 years of experience. An amazing singer, killer band and first rate material.


Also many happy listens:

Alabama Shakes-- Boy and Girls (Ato)
First Aid Kit--The Lion’s Roar (Wichita)
Passion Pit--Gossamer (Columbia
Monophonics--In Your Brain (Ubiquity)
XX--Coexist (Young Turks)

11 in 2011

My Top 11 in 2011 in 11 words or less
also posted on CHIRP Radio Best of 2011

In no particular order

Let England Shake, PJ Harvey
Grim, haunting songs sweetly sung. Next time, PJ, more guitar please.


Fractured Days, Brief Candles
Shoegazers from Milwaukee = bowling shoe gazers. Stellar from start to finish


Yuck, Yuck
These kids do the 90s better than most 90s bands.


The Whole Love, Wilco
Best since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot


WHOKILL, Tune-Yards
Wha? Ukelele-driven African beats? One of the year's best surprises.


Weird Freedom, Little Gold
Former Woods guitarist gets his pubrock/psychedelic/alt country freak on.


Cults, Cults
Bouncy but creepy take on sixties girl group sound and themes.


Last Summer, Eleanor Friedberger
Stream of consciousness tour of Manhattan and other islands.


Bad as Me, Tom Waits
Waits and Nick Cave give aging rockers hope.


The King is Dead, The Decemberists
Decemberists get rootsy, release one of their strongest efforts to date.


Icky Mettle, Archers of Loaf
Favorite reissue. 18 years later and still crunchy.

2010 Top Ten List

1) This is Happening, LCD Soundsystem
Summer officially started 3:06 into “Dance Yourself Clean” when the volume surges and handclapping gives way to a monster bass line. Finally, I can see the appeal of driving a boom car where the bass rattles all the windows in the neighborhood.

2) The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
This album could have been a load of pretentious crap, filled with clichés about the sterility and open-aired claustrophobia of suburban life. Thankfully, The Suburbs (for the most part) avoids those pitfalls and delivers a meditation on the emotional pull of a place you once called home. And the importance and inevitability of leaving that place.

3) Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter
The album is shot through with lyrics that twist in upon themselves, contradicting lines of optimism, then providing grace notes to the bleakest lines. One of the more poignant tracks, “Helicoptor,” imagines the last moments of Dima, a Russian male escort, before he is thrown off a helicopter. That strange unidentifiable percussive sound is the blade of the helicopter, heard through a drug-addled haze.

4) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West
In an album filled with diverse musical styles, samples from all over, guest stars and a wide-ranging inventiveness, West still manages to find space to wedge in all of his ego and all of his doubts.

5) Together, The New Pornographers
Not as propulsive as Twin Cinema or as hauntingly lovely as Challengers, Together is still sublime pop.

6) The Lady Killer, Cee Lo Green
This album is much more than the ubiquitous kiss-off single with the Motown bounce. Cee Lo obviously loves the soul stylings of the sixties and seventies and does an inspired take on them.

7) The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe
A remarkable debut album, switching between music genres with more dexterity and poise than most veterans could manage. She also seemed to be everywhere at once as a guest artist—appearing on albums by B.o.B., Big Boi and Of Montreal. And she brings it live. Even hampered with a muddy sound mix at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre, she put on a jaw-dropping performance.

8) High Violet, The National
Not the high water mark of Boxer or Alligator, perhaps because what they are writing about is more elusive. Instead of the bipolar extremes of male extended adolescence, with its dizzying self-regard (“All the Wine”) or its groveling lows (“Slow Show”), High Violet is trying to capture something else, that imperceptible slide into adulthood.

9) The Fool, Warpaint
The first full-length album by this LA all-female quartet is hypnotic. Lots of space in these songs to get lost in.

10) Crazy for You, Best Coast
Sunny pop songs about AWOL boyfriends who disappear with the weed.


Lots of Happy Listenings:

The Five Ghosts, Stars

False Priest, Of Montreal

Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene

Broken Bells, Broken Bells

Broken Dreams Club, Girls

Astro Coast, Surfer Blood

You Are Not Alone, Mavis Staples

New Amerykah Part Two, Erykah Badu


Their fifteen minutes are over: Sleigh Bells

More Lollapalooza

Arcade Fire
The high point of my summer:

Set list: Ready to Start (opener), Neighborhod #2 Laika, No Cars Go, Haiti, Empty Room Rococo, The Suburbs, Intervention, Crown Of Love, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), We Used to Wait, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Rebellion (Lies), Keep the Car Running. Wake Up (encore)

Lollapalooza 2010

One of the first highlights. Mavis Staples performs The Band's "The Weight." An amazing version that had the whole crowd singing along. Catch it here.



Later Ms. Staples brought out Jeff Tweedy, who produced her upcoming album, out for a guest turn. Mr. Tweedy doesn't sing, just plays a little acoustic guitar.

After Staples finishes, the Drive-by Truckers start at the stage on the other side of the field. Guitarist Patterson Hood asks the crowd to give a hand for Mavis. Seems like a gracious gesture, but it's even better. Later I read that his father, David Hood, played bass on a number of Staple Singers session at Muscle Shoals in the 1970s. Very cool.

Pitchfork 2010

Highlight

The most anticipated act paid off big time. LCD Soundsystem, Saturday night's headliner, grabbed the crowd from the first song (a fiery "Us V Them")and held it throughout its hour plus set. The peak of the set (and the whole weekend) came with an amazing "All My Friends." The percussive piano chord keeps repeating and repeating, building the tension released only when the last line comes around, which the whole crowd happily sings along.

The set had some huge omissions: "North American Scum," "Dance Yourself Clean" (which I think would sound amazing live), and "Home." If this is the last tour for this group, they are leaving at the top of their game.

Partial set list: "Drunk Girls," "I Can Change," "Pow Pow," "Someone Great," "Yeah Yeah," "Tribuations," "Losing My Edge," "Daft Punk," and a very curious choice for a closer, "New York, I Love You."

Luck of the Irish

I remember envying the Irish when I was growing up. They had a great holiday that everyone loved and celebrated; a big jolly party. You wore your green sweater, colored shamrocks and hung them all over the classroom.
We Polish-Americans weren’t so lucky; the only public acknowledgement of our heritage was Polack jokes.
Where’s the best place to hide money from a Polack?
Under a bar of soap.
And on and on. Polacks were dumb and dirty. The point was reiterated endlessly. The jokes were too moronic to wound but were frequent enough to blunt any incipient interest in Polish culture I might have, which I’m sure was not much. I was not interested in all that old stuff. And I wasn’t Polish, I was American.
These days, I’m thinking that maybe the Polish-Americans got the better deal. Chicago kids get off on Pulaski Day, but the day is not cause for wild celebrations of non-Polish people.
But the Irish are forced to see their culture, the culture of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, reduced to green draft beer and “Kiss me I’m Irish” T-shirts.
Of course, this cultural reductionism doesn’t afflict only the Irish but they are unfortunate enough to have a wildly popular holiday that becomes a day-long spectacle of these reductions.

Coyote Sighting

I had just finished parking my car behind the Civic Center, when I see what I think is a stray dog on the other side of the street. Then I realize it is a coyote, smallish, a bit scruffy-looking, but trotting down the sidewalk like he belongs and has an appointment to keep. My camera is in my backpack, which is in the backseat. But before I can move, the coyote takes a sharp right and disappears into the backyards. I try to follow, but he's gone. Nothing left but these prints, which don't look any different than a dog's. I'm staring at the tracks, when an older guy walks by. Did you see that? I ask him. He doesn't stop, but says, That was no dog.

Best of 2009

Best of 2009

2009 was a better years for songs than albums. I had no trouble my year-end mix tape of stellar songs released this year. Coming up with a list of ten albums that held together as albums was a lot tougher. But here’s what I enjoyed in 2009.

1) Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
Neko’s most popular album is also one of her best. Her voice is as divine as ever, She allows herself to write some choruses, and her lyrics have less of the obtuseness of Fox Confessor. It helps that I first heard the best of these songs on a gorgeous September night at the Hideout Block Party in 2008; hearing them again brings back that late summer magic.

2) Face Control by Handsome Furs
Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and his wife, Alexei Perry, make an album of lean muscular rock that is more vital and urgent than 90% of the stuff out there.

3) Fortress ‘round My Heart by Ida Maria
Brash, funny pop with a punk edge.

4) Hospice by The Antlers
A gorgeous suite of songs evoking the grief, guilt, helplessness and fear resulting from watching a loved one die. The music whispers then surges into powerful choruses.

5) Welcome to Mali by Amadou & Mariam (2009 US Release)
Maybe the most joyous album of the year comes from the Mali couple of Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia. The lead track, “Sabali,” continues to beguile.

6) Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
The same multilayered sonic landscapes you’d expect from Animal Collective, but crafted into more structured songs. “My Girls “ is a sunny, giddy delight.


7) Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
A big step forward from their 2006 release, Yellow House. Still too many formless swaths of pretty sounds, but the strong songs (“Cheerleader,” “Two Weeks,” “While You Wait for the Others”) are some of the best of the year.

8) Wilco by Wilco
I miss the edge of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but this comfy cardigan of an album is ingratiating.


9) It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Great dance rock.


10) Change of Heart by Tim Fite
Mr. Fite’s Valentine’s Day present to music fans is a free download of songs about a break up. Fite’s goofy wit is reined in a little (but, happily, not extinguished) and the songs cut deeper.


Many Happy Listens

Dark Was the Night by Various Artists
This double album compilation is a microcosm of the 2009 indie music universe: talented people recording some terrific songs, but why are so many so introspective and slow.

The XX by The XX
This debut album by a London band features spare arrangements with whispery vocals and carefully parsed guitar lines.

Yonder is the Clock by The Felice Brothers
Great songs. If only this album had the energy of the their live shows.

Art Brut vs. Satan by Art Brut
More droll rockers from this band from the UK. Are they pulling a Mekons and setting up shop in Chicago? They must have played here at least ten times this year, including a five-night stint at Schubas.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure of Heart

PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys (EP) by Paul Westerberg

Blood Bank (EP) by Bon Iver

Manners by Passion Pit

Best of the Decade

I make no claim that these are epoch-defining or the most influential of the decade. My criteria is simple: these are the albums that I’ve come back to again and again these last ten years.

#1 Funeral by Arcade Fire (2004)

#2 In Rainbows by Radiohead (2007)

#3 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco (2002)

#4 Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers (2005)

#5 Boxer by The National (2007)

#6 Come On Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens (2005)

#7 Middle Cyclone by Neko Case (2009)

#8 Ten New Songs by Leonard Cohen (2001)

#9 Sound of Silver by LCD Sound System (2007)

#10 The Meadowlands by The Wrens (2003)

#11 The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley (2008)

#12 Love & Theft by Bob Dylan (2001)

#13 Essence by Lucinda Williams (2001)

#14 3 Rounds and a Sound by Blind Pilot (2008)

#15 Failer by Kathleen Edwards (2003)

#16 Satellite Rides by Old 97s (2001)

#17 All Your Summer Songs by Saturday Looks Good to Me (2003)

#18 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon (2007)

#19 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey (2000)

#20 Alligator by The National (2005)

#21 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes (2008)

#22 Sea Change by Beck (2002)

#23 Dig, Lazarus, Dig by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2008)

#24 Challengers by the New Pornographers (2007)

#25 A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Philips (2004)

#26 Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal (2006)

#27 You & Me by The Walkmen (2008)

#28 When the Telephone Rings by The Silos (2004)

#29 Microcastle by Deerhunter (2008)

#30 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields (2000)

Pitchfork 2009

July 17 to July 19
Tortoise takes the stage during an off and on again drizzle and announces that it is dedicating its set to a friend who died this morning. This is the worse start I've ever heard to a concert or a festival promising three days of music.

Things improve. All in all the best Pitchfork I've been to, although the weather remains weird. Instead of the usual steambath, the days are sweatshirt cool and threaten rain the entire weekend.

Most repeated line from band.

Some variation on "This is the largest crowd we've played for." Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Antlers, Beirut, and at least one other band that I can't remember now.

Best t-shirt:
Die Emo Die

Most interesting photos of people on top of other people:
















I watched this kid lick his Dad's head for a good half of Cymbals eat guitars.


Highlights include:
The National, who seem to be getting better live. Songs that sound introspective on the album become fully fleshed out rockers in concert. At the end of the show, we're all screaming the lyrics to the final song: "I won't fuck us over; I'm Mr. November! Very cathartic.


The Walkmen
I was curious to see how "You & Me" would translate live. Sometimes I fell into the album and it was like a suite of songs; other times I found myself impatient--not enough variety. I was delighted to see that the album, which made up about half the set, was even more compelling live. The cords on Hamilton Leithauser's neck looked about ready to pop during songs like "in the New Year" and "The Rat."


The Yeasayers had the moment of the concert when the drizzle stopped and the sun came out for "Sunrise."

Santa Fe

There’s a reason Georgia O’Keefe, who spent the most important years of her artistic life in the Santa Fe area, painted still lives of flowers and skulls.

You spend months looking over at the mountains in the distance, months regarding the miles of dry mesas in between, and it works on you—like those nights away from the city when all the hidden stars come out to stun you and, after the first shock of beauty is gone, put you in your place. Your small, transient, inconsequential place.

Who needs a beach...or summer

Scout can sunbathe on a blanket of snow on a sunny 30-degree day. She's happy as a clam for a good half hour. When she comes back into the house, the fur on her back is warm.

The Temporal Horse Latitudes

The horse latitudes are a stretch in the ocean where currents and winds dwindled to nothing and sailing ships would be mired for days. They were called the horse latitudes because sailors in the horse trade had to travel through these waters. When they got stuck, they had to lighten the boat by throwing the horses into the sea. The screams of the drowning horses were terrible to hear.

On Friday afternoons, around 2 or 3PM, the temporal version of horse latitudes occurs. Time doesn't stir.

The screams of the cubicled are more muted but still terrible to hear.